<The most celebrated and perhaps most controversial of all political commercials was aired as a paid spot just once, during the NBC Movie of the Week on September 7, 1964. In Johnson’s Daisy ad, a young girl counts to ten as she picks the petals off a daisy. When she reaches nine, an ominous adult voice begins counting down to zero as a closeup of the little girl dissolves to a nuclear explosion. Tony Schwartz, the ad’s creator, called it "the first Rorschach test on the American public." Without mentioning Goldwater or citing any statements by him, the ad exploited the established public fear that he would start a nuclear war if elected president.

The Goldwater campaign vigorously protested the ad and Republic National Committee chairman Dean Burch said, "This horror-type commercial is designed to arouse basic emotions and has no place in the campaign." The Democrats withdrew it, but all controversy led to its being replayed in its entirety on network news and commentary programs, and the "daisy girl" made the cover of Time.

In its suggestive style and provocative sounds and visuals, the daisy ad exemplifies Johnson’s innovative commercials, which were produced by the vanguard New York agency Doyle Dane Bernbach and were almost exclusively anti-Goldwater.

President Kennedy had been impressed by the strikingly modern approach of the agency’s Volkswagen "think small" and Avis "we try harder" campaigns, and the agency was first contracted by the Democrats in the summer of 1963. Madison Avenue had been avoiding the Democrats since the days of Stevenson, but the agency accepted the account promptly, explaining to Johnson’s advisers that, "We are deadly afraid of Goldwater and feel that the world must be handed a Johnson landslide."



Note some of the advanced dirty tricks currently in vogue with many politicians, including firing a really rotten ad out there, withdrawing it with apologies, and watching in glee as the news media replays it forever.